January 31, 2026 - In August 2024, the San Juan Generating Station near Farmington, New Mexico, was demolished in a controlled implosion, sending up clouds of dust as the smokestacks of the 50-year-old coal-fired power plant tumbled to the ground. The plant, which had been retired in 2022, provided hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue and wages to a region shaped by, and largely dependent on, energy production.

As part of its broader efforts to educate, connect and support local leaders and decision-makers across the country as their communities transition toward clean energy, the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University works alongside coal workers and coal community leaders for whom the energy transition has far-reaching and deeply personal implications.

With coal plants reaching the ends of their useful lives and energy markets and systems shifting decisively toward cheaper and cleaner energy sources, numerous coal-fired power plants across the West have, like San Juan, ceased operations permanently or are expected to do so soon, leading coal workers and communities to draw new maps toward a future without the economic engine that in part organized their lives, work and culture.

Virtual Academy

Recently, CNEE convened a virtual academy for Northeast Arizona and Northwest New Mexico to provide a welcoming and collaborative space to learn about the evolving Western electric grid and to engage with energy and community development experts. The Evolving Electric Grid virtual academy focused on how solar and wind energy coupled with storage, as well as enhanced geothermal and nuclear energy, can provide reliable, affordable and clean power to the Western grid while helping to build diverse and resilient industries in communities losing coal plants and mines.

The academy, which took place over four sessions, commenced with a level-setting discussion of how renewable energy sources are already powering the West, particularly in Arizona and New Mexico, where renewables and nuclear comprised 47% and 50% of electric generation in 2024, respectively. In these states, a considerable amount of the electricity consumed in coal communities likely comes from a clean source, with locally generated coal-fired power being transmitted to urban areas across high-voltage lines. Such is the case in St. Johns, Arizona, where the coal-fired power produced at the Coronado Generating Station is transmitted to Pheonix, over 200 miles away.

Second Session

The second session of the academy focused on the role of clean, firm and dispatchable resources on the evolving electric grid, setting the stage for discussions of renewables coupled with storage, as well as geothermal and nuclear generation. Solar and wind, when coupled with storage, are able to meet a pressing need for flexible and dispatchable electricity generation: They are flexible generation sources in that they can be adjusted to meet changes in demand as the day progresses and as the seasons change, and they are dispatchable by virtue of energy storage systems, enabling electricity to be dispatched to the grid as needed. The session concluded with first-hand testimony from a community leader in Arizona with experience guiding solar, storage and wind projects through development.

Bringing energy projects into any community requires scoping and deliberation between project developers and local authorities, but this process can be stacked against rural towns, which usually lack the resources of well-capitalized energy companies. Academy participants learned how to walk energy projects through a development pathway that ensures expectations are clear and community priorities are well defined. Empowering local leaders to engage with energy developers on a level playing field is critical as coal communities face difficult decisions about their path forward.

Geothermal, Nuclear Energy

Session Three provided a deep dive into the social and technical dimensions of geothermal and nuclear energy. Enhanced geothermal generation harnesses thermal energy deep within the Earth to heat water pumped through underground pipes. Much of the infrastructure and many of the trade skills required to generate geothermal energy are similar to those of the oil and gas industry, making geothermal a particularly intriguing technology in communities with existing oil and gas wells and workforce. New Mexico ranks among the top U.S. states for geothermal potential, while emerging technologies are enabling geothermal drilling beyond traditional hotspots.

Some coal communities are particularly hopeful about offsetting the loss of their coal plant by instead producing nuclear energy. Presenters discussed recent advances in the design of nuclear reactors, including small modular reactors and advanced nuclear systems. However, there are currently no new nuclear reactors licensed for testing or construction in the U.S., and while a newly developed nuclear facility could employ some workers displaced from coal plants and mines, they would likely not be able to become nuclear plant workers without significant reskilling.

To provide a sense of what attracting a nuclear energy developer and laying the groundwork for the construction of a nuclear reactor entail, participants were joined by the city administrator of Kemmerer, Wyoming, where TerraPower’s Natrium nuclear plant is expected to be operational by 2030.

Final Session’s Theme

The final session focused on helping communities navigate the changing energy landscape, including not only new energy resources but also new energy demands such as data centers. Data center developers can overwhelm rural governments for the same reasons that energy project developers are often able to do so: They are usually better resourced and able to control the terms and speed of negotiation. Academy participants learned how to use the zoning and planning tools at their disposal to regain control over engagements with data center developers and ensure that tangible community benefits are realized.

State leaders from Arizona and New Mexico presented opportunities available to local governments to access state support as they navigate the energy transition, from Arizona’s Energy Promise Taskforce to New Mexico’s Community Benefit Fund. This was an important reminder that no single community faces the energy transition in isolation: The task and the stakes of managing a just energy transition are collective and require partnership and collaboration among communities, across levels of government, and between regions.

Providing support to energy communities in transition is central to CNEE’s work, and fostering bipartisan, good-natured and transparent dialogue is crucial to navigating toward a new energy economy and ensuring that resilience and wellbeing are at the core of this change. CNEE is thankful to work alongside and learn from the passionate local leaders who participated in the academy and who brought their pressing questions about how to best protect, enrich and provide opportunities for their communities.